At the Photo 101 workshop we spend half a day working on head shots.

One more day tomorrow!

How it was shot :: Lit from the window behind her. Reflectors catching that window light and bouncing it back into the eyes.

Cheers,
Zack

Shot this at the OneLight Workshop tonight. Or should I say, yesterday, since it is 3:37am and I’m just getting home from the workshop.

I always love it when someone at a workshop asks something along the lines of “How do you do such and such type of shot?” My answer is always… “Well, let’s figure it out!”

How it was shot :: Nikon SB-80dx at 1/4 power. Straight flash (no modifiers) pointing at cyc wall. Annie, one of our models today, was a bit nervous about this shot. She didn’t think she could jump in the way I was asking but she said she would try. She pulled it off on the first frame.

I love jump shots. I do. I don’t care how cliché they get I still love them. They are always a crowd pleaser because photography grabs that one motion that we can never really see in action.

Cheers,
Zack

Ahhhhhh… beautiful Newcastle. Had a great mixer tonight in the studio.

Pxl Peepers. This is a 100% crop of this image…

AND… I had to push the exposure by a stop and a half in post. Like, six pictures shot. Pxl Peepers will see what I’m talking about.

Zero sharpening for web.

It’s not mine. It’s a demo.

Cheers,
Zack

For those of you wondering about this blog template… It’s called Autofocus. There is a link at the bottom of this page. I love it for this project but it’s a bit quirky. The image you want shown on the front page is the last image you put in your post.

How it was shot :: I still had the 28″ Westcott Apollo softbox set up with an AB800 and the 800 with the grid from yesterday’s 365. I wrangled Gracie into position and shot my frames. Softbox on camera right and grid behind her on camera left. Softbox at 3/4 power and grid at 1/4 power.

Cheers,
Zack

Aside from B&W conversions and some cropping… one of these images is straight from camera and the other one required Photochop tomfoolery to create the multiple exposure look. I left a visual hint for you pxl peepers. :)

I am again stuck with two images that I like for different reasons but could not make a decision on one of them being the 365 offering of the day over the other so I have posted both of them. Clicking on them will bring up slightly larger images.

The Darker Side ::

The Lighter Side ::

How it was shot :: I had an AB800 on camera left with a 30º grid on it and an AB800 on camera right in a 28″ Westcott Apollo softbox. There were times I switched them around or turned one off or the other off during different exposures. I was just making sure that light was not spilling on the white wall behind her as I shot. I have found that the more successful multiple exposure images I create are those made on darker backgrounds.

Lighter backgrounds are difficult because each time you create an exposure, the exposure of the light background builds and builds and builds on top of each other making the overall image muddy or blown out depending on your exposure at capture and how many frames you are shooting for one image. Multiple exposure is equal parts maddening and inspiring.

For those of you lacking multiple exposure in camera you can easily start mucking about with it like this…

Shoot a bunch of images on a black or very, very dark background. Add one photo on top of another and change the top layer mode to “lighten”. You can keep adding layers of images like this. You then may want to layer mask certain parts of layers in and out.

Or shoot on a white background and change the top layers to “multiply”. It’s easier to create a multiple exposure look of images on white or light backgrounds in post since you can control the amount of exposures building on top of others with the multiply layer blending mode.

Cheers,
Zack

Gracie the Art Director is none too happy with the way things are going.

How it was shot :: AB1600 in a 50″ Westcott Apollo softbox.

Cheers,
Zack

Despite some storms, we had a great first OneLight Workshop of the year today.  This is musician Garrett Moore.  Workshop went till 2:30am.  That’s a good respectable ending time!  Now to get some sleep before a full day tomorrow.

How it was shot :: Straight Nikon SB25.

Cheers,
Zack

This is Kevin.  I just met him today.  He was hanging around the building because he was attending the LaCour workshop for the past few days.  He came up for the OneLight mixer we had tonight.  It was good times.  The idea box got filled up.  More to come on what that thing is over at zarias.com.

I’m setting up a simple portrait when Kevin informs me that he was recently photographed by Joe McNally.  My manhood shrank up when he told me that.  I still had to make a photo though.

How it was shot :: AlienBee 800 @ 1/4 power in a 28″ Westcott Apollo softbox.

Cheers,
Zack

This is our eleven year old, Caleb.  I look at these photos and I see my boy who still loves Legos.  I also see the young man who’s going to be asking for the car keys sooner than I’m ready for.

Shot available light.

Cheers,
Zack

Post made on the 17th because Meg and I were out late last night to catch the RJD2 show. 

Gracie has been really inspired lately.

How it was shot :: White seamless set up as discussed here.

Cheers,
Zack